Get Better at Debugging by Making Predictions

Shift to a proactive mindset by making predictions before any experiments in a debugging session. ...

September 23, 2025

Raise the "I'm Stuck" Flag

Consider this scenario. You’ve been given some work, and you’re stuck. Hours have become days. You’ve exhausted the internet. You’re starting to backtrack, delete work, and start over. Feeling defeated. To make matters worse, you haven’t told anybody. ...

September 10, 2025

Debugging Is a Story

Today I want to talk about a way I think about debugging: as a story that we tell to ourselves and each other. ...

September 9, 2025

"Don't Stay Stuck" Digital Guide Launch

I’m proud to announce the launch of my digital guide to software debugging, Don’t Stay Stuck: A Debugging Guide for Rising Engineers! ...

August 12, 2025

Banishing "Random" for Better Software Communication

“I’m still getting this random 404.” Want to sound pro? Banish “random” from your software engineering vocabulary. ...

June 17, 2025

Don't Guess

This is a response to “Don’t Guess” from the excellent “The Best Programmers I Know” by Matthias Endler. My goal is to crystallize my understanding of this trait. ...

April 29, 2025

"I Don't Understand" Debugging

My definition of “I don’t understand” debugging. ...

February 13, 2025

Find Every Debugging Trail Marker

If you’ve ever watched me debug, you might think I’m moving slowly. That’s because I try hard to find every marker on the debugging trail. I believe this is one of the most valuable skills in debugging. ...

June 17, 2024

The Case Against "Try This" Debugging

In many group debugging sessions I’ve joined, a major technique being deployed is something I call “Try This” debugging. In this post, I’d like to talk about this anti-pattern, and consider a better way. ...

June 26, 2023

You Can't Change Nothing

I saw a meme this week: a person debugging code, “My code doesn’t work. Let’s change nothing and run it again.” This is something that I’ve done. It seems pointless. But that’s not quite correct. ...

October 21, 2022

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